新零售现实：人工智能时代2026年零售配送趋势

Trust, proof, and the deliveryexperience in the AI era SECTION 12026 Retail Trends: The evolution of retail and customer demand Zero-click shopping: AI agents and agentic paymentsRetail media networks and the expansion into post-purchasePhygital and omnichannel: E-commerce and in-store blurShopping without borders: Cross-border convenience and choiceTwo foundations behind the new retail reality SECTION 2Capabilities: The truth layer21 Automation that earns trustService that scales without losing the human momentMeasurement, truth, and feedback loops SECTION 3Constraints: What’s shaping the playing field31 Regulation, AI guardrails, consumer rightsGeopolitics, customs friction, route volatility SECTION 4Blueprint: Turning insights into action39 Readiness checklistCapability mapSignals to watch in 2026Map where trust leaks About nShiftReferences INTRO Every year brings a fresh set of retail technology trends. 2026 is different for one simple reason: the mostimportant force showing up everywhere is acustomer who has stopped being patient. What’s changing isn’t just the speed of retail; it’s the shape of customer demand. Customers want control, visibility,and fewer compromises at every step of the journey. Delivery choices that fit real life. Updates that feel proactive,not apologetic. A returns journey that doesn’t punish them for buying online. When those expectations aren’t met,the impact lands on your brand. Behind that experience sits a carrier landscape that is getting more dynamic, with more out-of-home networks,more handovers, and more delivery choices that need to work consistently across partners. At nShift, we operate in the moments where that impact is created:between checkout and doorstep, betweenservice promise and operational reality, between retailer ambition and the limits of today’s logistics landscape. It’s avantage point that makes patterns hard to ignore. This report starts with the new retail reality, the shifts in behavior and demand that are redefining what “good”looks like. Then it goes deeper into what matters next: the capabilities required to deliver at scale, the constraintsshaping 2026, and the priorities that turn better delivery into competitive advantage. 2026 RETAILTRENDS: The evolution of retail andcustomer demand In 2026, the definition of convenience isshifting from “easy to browse” to “delegatedand automated”. For two decades, onlineretail relied on customers actively searching,filtering, and clicking. Now, more of thejourney is being mediated by assistants,marketplaces, and hybrid fulfilment models. The following market shifts describe howcustomer demand is changing and whydelivery, tracking, and returns are becomingpart of how commerce is won or lost. Zero-click shopping:AI agents andagentic payments Shopping is starting to be delegated. And when a machine is the first reader, theoffer has to be comparable. Total cost, delivery promise, and returns terms need tobe clear enough to be checked and executed automatically, not just explained. Where we are now AI shopping agents are moving fromnovelty to infrastructure. The shift is alreadyvisible in discovery behavior. In Capgemini’s 2025 consumer research1, 58% ofconsumers said they have replaced traditional search engines with generative AItools for recommendations, which means discovery is increasingly happeninginside assistants. Trust remains a constraint on full automation. Forrester’s 2025 UK research2pointsto a gap between expectation and readiness. 35% of UK online adults expectbrands to market directly to AI agents in the future, while 24% currently trust AIagents to make routine purchases on their behalf. An early adopter segment is already active. Retailer-commissioned researchindicates that 28% of UK adults are comfortable allowing an AI assistant to auto-buyapproved items. Where we’re heading McKinsey’s 2024 view of agentic commerce3describes three emerging paths: •In one, an agent navigates to a brand website in place of a shopper.•In another, agents transact directly with other agents.•In a third, agents act through brokerage models that connect agents and brand sites. The common outcome is thatpurchasing becomes more automated, whilethe information required tomake a purchase becomes more structured. For retailers, this shift tends to show up in three interconnected ways: Customer experiences are reimagined around “delegated” interactions. Marketing becomes less about persuading a human and more about beingselected by a machine. Payments and fraud controls evolve to support non-human purchasersacting on behalf of customers. The payments layer is already moving. PayPal has been building agenticcommerce services designed to make inventory and fulfilment easier for AIagents to interpret and act on4. Major payment networks are also definingprotocols for agent-driven payments, including Visa’s Trusted AgentProtocol5, Mastercard’s Agent Pay Acceptance Framework6, and Google’sAgent Pay